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Sultan Hurre Remembrance Day
(SHHRF 0060/2006, 15 August 2006)
(English version)
17 August 2006 is the fourth anniversary of the killing of
Sultan Ahmed Mohamed Hurre, who symbolises all the Somalis killed for
political reasons. The respected/educated Sultan was killed point blank at
Kalabayr of Puntland on 17 August 2002 by the bodyguards of Col. Abdullahi
Ahmed Yusuf, the current leader of the crisis-ridden Transitional Federal
Government confined to Baidoa, Somalia. The Colonel admitted that his
bodyguards killed the Sultan while he was the disputed President of the
Puntland State of Somalia. Col. Yusuf did this admission in a submission he
made to the High Court of Justice in London, even though he had denied his
knowledge of the death of the respected sultan. The fact remains that Col.
Yusuf was in a stone’s throw when the Sultan was gunned down under his
supervision.
Similar political assassinations have also taken place in
Puntland and elsewhere in Somalia. Colonel Farah Mohamed Said (Farah Dheere),
a respected businessman was gunned down by no one but by the same bodyguards
of the Colonel. It is also remembered that the special bodyguards of Col.
Yusuf were implicated in the broad-day-light killing of Abdirahman Aidid, a
well known Somali politician, in 1984, in Dire Dawa. Aidid was the Colonel’s
political rival at the time while Col. Yusuf was the chairman of the armed
oppotion called Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).
Another Somali intellectual was killed in Mogadishu on 11
July 2005. The brutal killing of Abdulkadir Yahye had similar hallmarks with
that of Sultan Hurre. Both were vocal community leaders. Both were loathed
by those who like to live by the barrel of the gun. Both were killed by
cowards who like to associate themselves with scoundrels, like the ill-fated
warlords of Mogadishu, at the expense of people with integrity like Hurre
and Yahye.
Despite the dismal record of the Colonel, it was
deplorable to see that the appointed Somali members of parliament elected
Col. Yusuf as the “President” of transitional set-up in Somalia in 2004. It
is no surprise that assassinations are common now in Baidoa and the nation's
leadership is going from crisis to crisis. Indeed, it was a surprise to hear
Col. Abdullahi condemning the assassination of Abdallah Deerow Isaq
recently. Perhaps, Col Abdullahi has forgotten his deeds in Puntland. "It is
not acceptable that a Muslim person kills a person so valuable like Abdalla
Deerow", Abdullahi said. Since there is no contention that Sultan Hurre was
a very valuable leader, it is reasonable to question whether Abdullahi came
to know later that it is a sin to kill a Muslim while you are a Muslim.
SHHRF is condemning the use of political violence in
settling political differences. We remind the Somali people and the
international community that the leader of Somalia’s fledgling interim
set-up had eliminated his political adversaries and has no qualms in doing
it again and again. It is the mother of all farces to hear that the killer
of Deerow will be prosecuted by Abdullahi while the killer of Sultan Hurre
is roaming at large in Puntland. Indeed, Hurre's assassin was the
"President’s” next of kin.
We urge all Somalis, the international community as well
as the human rights agencies in Somalia and worldwide to take to task
Somalia’s new dictator and his sponsors. No more killings of Somalis let
alone its intellectual leaders.
Sultan Hurre Human Rights Focus (SHHRF) |
